Office Space by KZw

[raw]
made by KZw for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

It's an office job in space. The pay is good, just don't get fired.

If Papers Please and Save the Reactor had a love child, this would be the bootleg of that love child.

cap.png

Your contract is for five days. Each day lasts for 60 seconds. Rules change daily, so make sure to check them by hovering over the [!] boxes.

Click the colored buttons to signal the subjects according to the rules. Management might send signal flags, check their meaning on the rules.

Flag signals take priority over any other rules.

Pay attention and do not let the skinwalkers in.


Art done in Sai and edited in gimp (Curve correction + HSV noise + Posterize + downscaled).

Audio made by fumbling with sfxr.

Code is pure spaghetti, don't look at it.

Ratings

Overall 189th 3.289⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 210th 3.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 241th 2.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 198th 3.342⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 59th 3.921⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 165th 3.139⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 135th 2.588⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 103th 3.632⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 39🗳️ 2🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 428646
Apr 20th · 03:01 UTC
OMG THIS GAME IS SO AWESOME
![ofice.png](///raw/66a/86/z/70744.png)
I suck at it so much, but I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being my favorite game from this jam. The art is absolutely incredible, and the gameplay reminds me of Lucas Pope's games. I really love what you got going on here. I would buy it in a heartbeat if it were on steam in a more polished state. The only thing holding this game back is player feedback. I just have no idea when I get something wrong, so I have no idea how to correct the mistake in the future. The hints are pretty easy to misinterpret, which I don't think is a bad thing at all, but only finding out what you did wrong at the end of the day leads to me just having to guess whatever it was that I messed up. Other than that, incredible work!!
nathmate
Apr 20th · 22:48 UTC
I couldn't figure out what I was looking for in determining how to flag each of the alien dudes. The art and general vibe was really nice though. Eerie but banal, in a "office-work" sort of way.
NonDev
Apr 21st · 18:13 UTC
I like the layering of different things to pay attention to and that modify the signal you need to send. I'm pretty bad at these types of games but I had fun figuring things out. I dig the noisy/grungy art, meshes with the overall ambiguous nature of the game. Glad you took part, keep it up!
Aannnnman
Apr 22nd · 07:40 UTC
I didn’t understand anything. The feedback is unclear.
Podrez
Apr 25th · 10:03 UTC
Yeah, it really feels like Pepper's Place, but during a bad trip. 5/5 I loved it. Thanks
IRKAR
Apr 25th · 11:26 UTC
I like games in this genre also artwork is cool 67![photo_2026-04-25_14-24-45.jpg](///raw/25b/76/z/72ace.jpg)
Phlip45
Apr 27th · 02:04 UTC
![2026-04-26 19_02_03-Office Space _ ldjam.com _ Ludum Dare game jam — Mozilla Firefox.png](///raw/68a/3/z/72ca2.png)
I can do pretty good on the earlier days, but it does ramp up pretty quick. I wish I could take a look at the rules before starting the day instead of having to read them and waste time at the start of the day, especially when there is a new mechanic like on day 3. Other than that though it is a very solid rendition of these sort of paper's please job simulator games. Great job!
LDJam user 303624
Apr 29th · 02:47 UTC
The later days get pretty stressful, but I enjoyed it! Great designs for the aliens
Wallted
Apr 29th · 02:56 UTC
The art direction is fantastic - the intro shots and the creatures are looking astonishingly. I find it quite fun that the rules are presented as doodles - this improves the challenge in a engaging way. There is a great amount of rules and variety to spend the satysfying amount of time with the game. Good job!
zhangzhimu
May 03rd · 12:58 UTC
As soon as I entered, the art design looked very nice, including these demonic designs. I thought it would be great if there were some gameplay instructions inside.
Allax
May 03rd · 16:47 UTC
That's funny! I love games like Papers, please.
I hope you'll see the mechanics through to completion because it's a really interesting concept.
🎤 KZw
May 04th · 04:09 UTC
Thanks for the feedback!
The instructions were really rushed, like done in ~10 minutes rushed. I was originally going to have a mode in-depth guide in the game with priorities and lore fluff but burnout was setting in.

When I get some time I want to polish it up more and release a complete version, so look forward to that!

@phlip45 the stress of reading the rules during the day is part of the fun. That, the nebulous quotas, and the clock are meant to throw you off, but
!> the thresholds are very forgiving. Days were half as long until a last minute change and you could still take your time then.
Harmadillo
May 04th · 09:49 UTC
The files are not longer available to download.
![filebin.JPG](///raw/89f/33/z/73123.jpg)
SteveOfStevesGames
May 06th · 19:31 UTC
i got to level 3 at least, i thought i didnt die but level 4 didnt start.
I still wasnt sure what i was doing but this is pretty cool.
I like the art style, very 90's.
tetrapteryx
May 07th · 18:54 UTC
I feel like I just finished a stressful work shift, so 10/10 for immersion :upside_down:

The art style is awesome, those alien faces are genuinely FREAKY. The flag signals add a really cool twist to the Papers, Please-like mechanic, and I appreciate that it's reasonably forgiving yet still challenging.

I've never felt so much inexplicable existential dread while playing a jam game. I look forward to a post-jam version if you get around to it!
LDJam user 257640
May 11th · 00:13 UTC
When I turned on the game I was confused with enigmatic starting sequence and then being thrown into gameplay without instruction. From reading game page more carefully, I learned that there is in fact rule list, I just didn't locate it yet. I think you could take a note from *Papers Please* here, and just start the day on instruction page, so player will be forced to read them. I like your way of showing the rules, quickly hovering over them. It makes it easy to re-check them when assessing the monsters. But if you planning to expand the rules more, you could think abt turning them into book with pages or sth like that.

And it took me a bit to understand those rules but I think it's fine, if you are going for players slowly figuring out how the game works. But to do it effectively, they need immediate feedback. They need to know if they weren't supposed to let that monster in, it cannot happen after the day ends (*Papers Please* prints you notice shortly after you messed up, with the info what you didn't account for). Actually I would recommend it even if rules were written more elaborately, because regardless of how many words we use, it won't make sure that player understood any of them. Well that said, I figured out how purple flags work (it's about disheveled hair/look) at the very last playthrough... with resetting few times first day to be sure of my assumption.

But I beat the game. And I enjoyed slow progression of in-game mechanics / rules across the days. Other than that, I appreciate the aesthetic and sound design, they definitely added to the mood and were worth the effort. Those sequences, starting and ending were also great even if I didn't understood the plot here.

![office_space_win.png](///raw/86e/e3/z/7343e.png)